This history of the Flight Research Center (FRC) Simulation Laboratory (FSL) describes the development of experimental flight-test simulators and the rapid evolution of the computers that made them run. (The FRC was a predecessor of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.) This publication describes the development of the Flight Research Center Simulation Laboratory during the period from 1955 to 1975. These are the years in which analog computers were used as a major component of every flight simulation that was mechanized in support of the many different flight research projects at the High-Speed Flight Station (HSFS-redesignated the Flight Research Center (FRC) in 1959 and the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in 1976). Initially, analog computers were used along with a ground-based cockpit for these simulators. This started in 1955. In 1964 a small scientific digital computer was bought and added to the X-15 simulator. This was the start of the hybrid (combined analog and digital) computer period of flight simulators. Both of these periods are covered in this document.
Black Magic and Gremlins: Analog Flight Simulations at NASA's Flight Research Center
2000
244 pages
Report
No indication
English